Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Too Young To Be a Baller?

David
Stern is pushing hard to raise the age limit for entrance into the National
Basketball Association. Under current NBA rules, a U.S. player's high school class
must have graduated in order for him to become eligible for the draft, while
international players must turn 18 before the draft in order to be eligible. If
Stern gets his way, and he often does in basketball matters, being old enough
to vote or get drafted into military service won't be sufficient. He would
prefer that NBA ballers be at least 20 years of age rather than going pro
directly after the prom. In his vision of a Utopian basketball world,
freakishly talented young men who don't yet need to shave regularly will either
go to college or else enter the National Basketball Development League, using
it as more of a traditional minor league system.

There are
vocal critics of Commissioner Stern's proposal, such as Jermaine O'Neal of the
Indiana Pacers who made the leap from high school to the NBA a few years ago.
He points to his own success in the league as just one example of the
relatively smooth transition from boy with a basketball and a dream to man with
a mansion and millions in the bank. Last year, eight high school seniors were
among the first 19 picks, including the number one overall selection. The last
two NBA Rookie of the Year winners, LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire, were
drafted straight out of high school. This year's All-Star game featured seven
players - Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Rashard Lewis, O'Neal,
Stoudemire and James - who made the jump directly from the preps to the pros.
Convincing evidence indeed that there's no time like the present to exchange a
varsity jacket for a pro uniform. Many lawyers would agree with O'Neal's
contention that a raised age limit would be unconstitutional. Does he make a
valid point in suggesting that Stern's age limit proposal hints of racism,
since the NBA is so heavily comprised of African-Americans, unlike sports such
as baseball and hockey that do not have similar age restrictions? Or does Stern
have a better argument in claiming that his plan is necessary because too many
young urban Americans are looking at the NBA as a viable avenue to financial
security for their families and a quick path to stardom for themselves, and the
vast majority of them end up chasing a dream that will not be caught? It used
to be that basketball players routinely graduated college before turning pro.
Then they began entering the NBA draft after their junior year of college, then
after their sophomore year, then after only one year of collegiate experience,
and now increasingly more of these young men aren't even bothering to take
advantage of athletic scholarships being offered to them. Why pursue higher
education at no cost when Escalade ownership and several pounds of bling to
accentuate arms full of tattoos is only a contract offer away?

Maurice
Clarett, who recently brought a lawsuit against the NFL challenging the
league's age requirement policy while sitting out his sophomore season due to ineligibility,
no doubt agrees with O'Neal and others who feel that if an athlete is skilled
enough for a pro team to offer him a contract here and now, he should have the
right to sign it whether or not he's done going through puberty. I myself never
thought to sue anybody for not offering me a job when I was 18. Avoiding any
kind of real responsibility and making most of my decisions based on raging
hormones was all the work I cared to have at that point in time. Then again, if
there was a chance of being offered millions of dollars to play a game I gladly
would have played for free, two years would have seemed like an awfully long
time to wait for the opportunity.

The most
recent trends in the NBA have been towards youth, locating talent in foreign
lands where the fundamentals of the game are still stressed, and the emergence
of mobile giants who appeal to an enormous Asian fan base. These trends have
each netted success stories. The NBA machine does not appear to be broken in
any way, yet David Stern still wishes to tinker with it. I guess he isn't too
worried that thousands of young men in urban areas of this country will grow
frustrated that their dreams of NBA stardom have been deferred, and opt to put
down their basketballs in favor of hockey sticks. Mr. Stern was patient enough
to earn a college degree, followed by a law degree, and then marched steadily
up the ranks of his chosen profession until becoming the commissioner of the
NBA and proceeding to revitalize the league. The reward for his due diligence
is that he now gets to make and enforce the rules, whether the Jermaine O'Neals
and Maurice Claretts of the world like it or not. The wisdom David Stern has
accumulated over the years has perhaps enabled him to realize that while a
handful of young phenoms such as Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony can infuse a
jolt of energy to the NBA, more harm than good may be done if the amount of
professional teen ballers is allowed to increase to too high a percentage. One
senses that Stern fears letting the NBA turn into Daddy Daycare at best, League
Gone Wild at worst.

Patience, like
a back breaking crossover dribble, is a virtue. So my cliché filled advice to
all young men with hoop dreams is to bide your time and enjoy the early days of
your lives to the fullest extent. The future isn't going anywhere, and gaining
more experience at your chosen craft never hurts, no matter how unnecessary it
seems. Gaining a little maturity never hurt anyone either. Don't fixate on your
destination to the point that you barely notice the ride. Youth may not be
wasted on those who possess it, but it certainly isn't appreciated enough until
it is gone. And unlike Michael Jordan, once it has left, it never comes back.
As for racism, that never quite goes away.

About Me

NOW ACCEPTING REVIEW REQUESTS FROM INDIE AUTHORS ---
I plan to review independently published novels (with perhaps a sprinkle of non fiction thrown in) on a regular basis when the calendar turns to 2017. No genres barred, which is not to say that I will read anything/everything suggested to me. I may take a pass on most for I intend to be picky, my selection criteria based strictly on what sounds like "my kind of book". DIVERSITY welcomed, PRINT preferred. In addition to a synopsis I'll want to see a brief excerpt from your book to help me decide. For a taste of my style, type "book reviews" into the Search bar. Or you can peruse my collection of reviews at goodreads. Send queries to mudhousebooks@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy Pickering is the author of the novels Matters of Convenience & Patches of Grey, as well as the novella Feeding the Squirrels which you can find presented here in serialized form. A sampling of his prose is showcased at RoyPickering.net. Roy once blogged here in tandem with his wife. Erin's presence is still felt through her artwork in many of the postings.